Handmade quilling dolls: Little Miss Rosy and Sweet Old Grandma

Learning new forms of art and craft is a beautiful way to live your life. It acts like a repellent to the negative thoughts that generally stem from an empty or disturbed mind. After getting a hold on the basics of quilling, I realized these could be applied in many many creative ways to build new stuff. I stopped planning on any creative or craft based projects, I decided to go impromptu!

There are quite a few stationary stores in my area, and I hardly visit them. This time I did and there were some quilling strips in amazing mix of colours. Usually, I plan what I can make from them but this time I put a brake on my over excited brain. I bought quite a few packets with interesting colours and stored them in my craft drawer. Yes, I have one now! 🙂

Paper by itself is just a plain one-dimensional sheet, but when it is moulded in different ways you can create the world with it. There are so many beautiful ways to create a 3D world using paper: Origami, Paper-mache sculptures, Paper cutting, Quilling, and more. I chose the most easy technique from all these and that is quilling. Here are a few posts where you can learn to make miniature paper roses and paper flowers in a vase, and some ethnic paper jhumkas.

With knowledge of basics one can make miniature dolls too. When I was scouting through all the colours I had, there was a big bunch of flesh-tinted strips that said, “Make a little doll from us!” And, strangely so, there were beautiful colours for little dresses too, so that was it. I decided to apply all the basic quilling techniques into making a paper doll.

For the below dolls, I’ve made four units – one sphere and three conical shapes (the technique is the same as the one used for making the vase and the jhumkas shared in the earlier posts). Stick a couple of miniature roses on the doll’s headband and some frills across the neck using the daisy flower making technique. I added some frills on the sleeve ends and the skirt ends.

Little Miss Rosy

For sweet old grandma, I wanted to do something different with her hairstyle and dress. Unlike little Miss rosy, she cannot have flicks in the front. So as you can see, grandma’s head was painstakingly covered in spiral strips from side to side, giving the look of curly hair tied into a bun. The same technique can be used to make a weaved basket too. (I made one, but gave it away along with the dolls without clicking a picture.)

Sweet Old Grandma

Also, grandma has short puffed sleeves ending in frills. This is just a first try so maybe there could be better dolls in the future.

Useful Tips: The only thing that will spoil the final look of your doll is balance. If little Miss Rosy and sweet Old Grandma can’t stand properly on their own, that would be a sad story. So, take pieces of thermocol and stick it inside the cone shape of the gown/dress. This will add some mass and also give it balance. Add little shoes if you feel like it, or leave it at that.

Also, about the sphere of the head. Before joining the two half cups stick thermocol pieces on both side and keep a tiny pebble in between. This will always ensure the head is weighed down on the body and help in making your figure stand straight!